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Chat 'N' Chew LbNA #39122

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Apr 15, 2008
Location:
City:Crockett
County:Contra Costa
State:California
Boxes:1
Planted by:Yosemite MJD
Found by: blues moon
Last found:Aug 20, 2010
Status:FFFFF
Last edited:Apr 15, 2008
5/13/09 *****pulled for a few days for maintenance****

This box replaces a box that commemorated the Al Zampa Bridge, completed in 2003, spanning the Carquinez Strait between Crockett and Vallejo on I-80. It is named for a Crockett resident, a steelworker who helped build many of the Bay Area’s bridges, including the Golden Gate.

The Chat ‘N’ Chew was a restaurant that used to sit where the new Vista Point is in Crockett. This exceptional viewpoint looks over the Carquinez Strait and Mare Island, up to Napa County and over to Marin County. Informational signs rest on actual pieces of the old 1927 Carquinez bridge that was dismantled in 2006-2007.

This can be a drive-by, but if you have the time, walk or ride your bike across the new Carquinez bridge. Here’s your chance to walk from Contra Costa County to Solano County! The walk across the bridge is easy, about a mile each way, but you don’t have to go all the way across to enjoy the view. Near the north end of the bridge, on the Vallejo side, you can look out across the San Francisco Bay to Mt. Tamalpais, and up the Delta to Mt. Diablo. There’s a nice viewing platform on the Vallejo side of the bridge. Stroller and dog friendly. Dogs on leash and please pick up after them (you’ll see evidence of those who don’t!).

If you choose to walk the bridge, do that first. When you leave the Vista Point, it is a “right turn only”, which takes you away from the bridge.

Directions: Take Exit 27 off of I-80 and turn right on Pomona at the end of the off ramp at the stoplight. If you want to walk the bridge, do this first, by turning right again almost immediately into the parking lot which is for bridge visitors and The Dead Fish restaurant. To get to the Vista Point, proceed right about ¼ mile along Pomona which turns into San Pablo Ave. and turn right into the parking lot. When you leave, the sign says “Right Turn Only”, do so, and follow the road around the hill and turn left onto Cummings Skyway at the next stoplight. This will take you back to I-80.

Clues: After reading the informational signs and taking in the view, walk down the little road below the platform (not through the new landscaping). There is a strangely round rock nearby. Next to it are 2 other rocks and between them is your treasure. Please rehide carefully.

If you want to explore Crockett, go left down Pomona St. and under the freeway into town. Take a left and go down Port St. to the Nantucket restaurant (I believe this is better than The Dead Fish) or continue on Pomona where there is a deli. There are also art galleries and some antique shops in this quaint town.